by Barbara Martinez, Wall Street Journal
After months of criticism that the Department of Education was not doing enough to help students who had fallen behind, Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Tuesday announced a $10 million effort to tutor children who are below grade level.
Flanked by the teachers union president and a representative of a parents organization, each of whom only months ago criticized the mayor’s lack of a strategy to address their concerns, Mr. Bloomberg said the money could affect up to 50,000 students at more than 500 schools. The union and the parent groups have been saying that 100,000 need intensive services—but yesterday neither group was willing to criticize the mayor’s plan as insufficient.
“Our voices were heard,” said Zakiyah Ansani, a parent leader who shared the podium with Mr. Bloomberg.
The flap over student performance began in the summer, when the state education department raised the bar on what it takes to be proficient in math or English for third- through eighth-graders. As a result of the change, tens of thousands of New York City schoolchildren who had previously been deemed proficient suddenly were not.
The number of students scoring proficient in English in New York City fell to 42% this year from 69% in 2009. In math, 54% of city children scored proficient this year, down from 82%.
The $10 million, out of an overall education budget of more than $20 billion, will go to the 532 schools where more than two-thirds of the students performed below proficiency on the state tests. It will be up to the schools to decide how to spend the money. Some schools will get as much as $65,000, and some as little as $6,000.
The money will be sent to the schools next month. When Mr. Bloomberg was asked during Monday’s news conference why he didn’t put this effort in place back in September, he quipped: “We have a new chancellor,” a reference to Cathie Black, who took over from Joel Klein this month.
Only a few weeks into the job, Ms. Black caused a stir in recent days when she suggested birth control as a way to prevent overcrowded classrooms. She also likened making decisions about schools to “Sophie’s Choice,” a film about a mother who had to decide which one of her children in a concentration camp would survive.
Ms. Black was asked during Monday’s news conference to address those remarks. Just as she was about to take the microphone, Mr. Bloomberg blocked her, saying: “I’ll answer for her.”
As Ms. Black stepped back behind Mr. Bloomberg, he said: “She made a joke. Should she have, in retrospect? Probably not.” Mr. Bloomberg added that he, too, made verbal faux pas when he first moved from the private sector to the public world and that the media and others may be taking her comments too seriously.
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